Stages
by TehNicksterBoi
Summary: Annabeth's abrupt suicide hit Percy hard. Follow him, as he goes through the five stages of grief.
1. Denial

**Thanks to a genius idea, Revenge is now the prequel to Stages. If it's not too much trouble, I suggest you read it before you read this:**

** s/9214271/1/Revenge**

** If not, no trouble. Read on.**

* * *

Percy had to take the news sitting down. He put his head in his hands, and sobbed, a terrible, heart wrenching sound. The sound of someone who just lost the love of their life. For that was exactly what had happened. Annabeth had killed herself. No warning, not even so much as a sign of sadness from her. She had seemed to be the perfect picture of mental health. So when she was found by her father with a bullet hole in her temple, it was extremely shocking, certainly life changing to everyone. Which is where we find Percy now, sitting in the Chase's living room, crying. Mr. Chase had called him immediately to give him the news. The two men sat in the living room in shocked silence, waiting for the police to arrive, tears falling from their faces.

"How… how could this have happened…?" Mr. Chase managed to choke out. Percy shook his head.

"I don't know… she never seemed to have any problems… none at all…" He said. There wasn't much to say. Percy honestly could not believe it. They heard the wailing of sirens as the police pulled into the street. Mr. Chase opened the door, and the uniforms began flooding in. the forensics and coroners looked at Mr. Chase. He pointed up to the stairs and croaked out, "First door on the left."

"Young man?" Percy saw a police officer walking up to him. He pulled his head out of his hands. "I'm Officer Brunner. I'm going to ask you a few questions, they might help clarify why this happened." Percy nodded. "Yeah… go ahead…" He said.

"Has the girl, Annabeth, been acting strange in any way?" Percy shook his head.

"No, she's been fine… she seemed perfectly happy, no problems whatsoever…" He responded. The officer looked troubled.

"Well, then I can't actually ask you anything else. Don't worry boy, we'll do all we can to figure out what happened." He said. Percy absently shook his head, mostly tuning out Officer Brunner.

Percy stood up, and walked outside to his car. He got into the driver's seat, started the engine, and began to drive home. He could not accept that his lover was dead, especially by her own hand. The words 'Annabeth' and 'dead' didn't fit together in a sentence Percy could comprehend. He drove home in silence, no music on the radio, or his iPod. He drove slightly recklessly, he didn't really care what happened to him at the moment. He eventually arrived at his dark house, and went into the bathroom. He gazed into the mirror, and splashed cold water all over his face. Then he froze. There she ways, standing right there behind him, smiling. He abruptly turned around, and saw nothing.

"No… no, no, NO she's not fucking dead!" He yelled to the empty house. Then he got an idea. "She's just out somewhere, at one of her usual places!" He said. He dried his face, and rushed back out to his car. He hopped in, and drove off to Thalia's house. This time, he had music on, trying to make everything like it was just another night. After a couple of minutes, he reached Thalia's. He knocked on her door, and she answered, a forlorn look on her face.

"Hey Perce…" She said sadly. "C'mon in…"

"Thalia! Is Annabeth here?" He asked frantically. Thalia looked at him.

"Percy… She's dead…" Tears were pooling in her eyes. "If this is some kind of joke it's NOT FUNNY!" She yelled. Percy looked shocked.

"No… she's not dead… she's not!" He said. He found a chair and collapsed into it. Thalia's tears were flowing now. It took a lot to make her cry.

"She is dead Percy… we can't fix that… its happening, we have to accept it…" She told him.

"No, I won't accept it! There are other places I have to check!" And with that, he ran out of Thalia's house, leaving her to wonder what the hell he was saying.

And so Percy began his trek across the town, searching everywhere. He looked in her favorite restaurants, the library, even the architectural hall. Nowhere. She was nowhere. He eventually had to give up and he drove home for the final time that night. He walked into the house, and didn't bother turning the lights on. He walked to his bedroom, and changed into his pajamas before falling into bed. He fell into a deep dreamless sleep almost instantly. He wished he could sleep forever.

* * *

**Hey everyone! So this is going to be a five part series on the stages of grief. If you're curious about the stages, go Google it. Some of the chapters (or all of them) might be short, but hey, it's something I'm trying. Don't kill me x.x So hit follow, and you can stay updated and ready for the next chapter/stage. Until then my friends!**


	2. Anger

Percy woke up the next morning. Everything came rushing back to him in a hurry. She was dead. She was dead. She was DEAD. It was all he could think about. It made him angry. He didn't know where the sudden rage was coming from. He wasn't even sure what he was angry towards. The world, for playing its cruel tricks on him, or Annabeth for doing the deed. All he knew, is that he was pissed. Extremely pissed. He forcefully got out of his bed, stalked over to his dresser, and found his black workout clothes. He slammed the door to his bedroom and walked out of his house, not bothering to make breakfast. He needed alone time, but not in his house. There were too many memories of Annabeth there.

He drove to the gym, a place he sometimes went when he had nothing better to do. The gym was empty, just Percy. _Good…_ He thought. _Nobody's here _to_ see me vent… _He walked up to one of the large 90 pound punching bags, and put his gloves on. He took a deep breath, let it out, and then began to whale on the bag like it would make Annabeth come back. A steady 'umph' sound came from the bag each time he beat it. He was hitting it so hard, that his hands were hurting even through his gloves. Right. Left. Middle. Side. The bag took punishment. He threw in a kick and the bag shuddered on its chain. Percy stopped for a brief moment, tore off his gloves, and resumed beating the hell out of the bag. He imagined Death, off laughing somewhere at his fury. That just made Percy even angrier. He slammed into the bag with his fists so hard, they began to bleed.

"AAAAH!" He yelled. Percy pivoted on his left heel, and slammed his right into the bad. There was an almighty cracking sound, and then the chain that was anchored into the wall gave, falling onto the gym's floor, taking the bad with it. Percy stood there, huffing and looking at the fallen punching bag.

"Well, it's a good thing you're not the Hulk." He heard a voice say from behind him. He spun around and saw Reyna standing there. He wasn't surprised. She came to the gym every now and then, and she was friends with the owner, Beckendorf.

"Reyna." He said. She looked at him with sad eyes.

"Come here Percy… let's get those knuckles bandaged." She said. He nodded mutely, and followed her to her gym bag. She always kept bandages and medical stuff, in case she hurt herself training too hard.

"Sit down." She said. Percy plopped down next to her, cross legged. She took out some gauze, took his left hand, and began wrapping it. "I'd ask how you're holding up, but… that question was answered for me." She said.

"Why did this happen?! She was so happy… I thought I made her happy… but she's dead…" He said. Reyna wrapped his other hand.

"We may never know Perce. And we'll have to live with that." She said wisely. "But do you think Annabeth would want you like this? I know that sounds cliché, but it's true."

"I dunno what the hell Annabeth wanted…" He muttered. Reyna lightly slapped him.

"Perseus Jackson. You know that she loved you. She would never want you to be sad." Reyna said to him.

"Yeah… I'm sure…" He said. "Thanks for the patch up Rey. Tell the owner I'll pay for the bag…" Reyna looked troubled.

"Okay. I will." She said. Percy got up to leave. "And Percy?" He turned. "Don't do anything stupid." She said. He nodded and left

* * *

Percy got home and changed into some normal clothes. He felt like destroying stuff. He had an axe in his garage. He grabbed that, and dashed into the woods behind his house. He went deep into them before he hefted the axe, and began slamming it into a tree, grunting each time the axe hit. The impact jarred his bones, but he didn't care. He kept whacking it until he had made some deep cuts in it. He gave a yell, and slammed the blade into the tree one last time, before the tree fell with a loud crash. Percy stood back and admired his handiwork. As he did so, Reyna's words came back to him. He shook it off and walked back inside. It had gotten late, it was around 4:00pm. His stomach rumbled, and he remembered that he skipped breakfast. He made a sandwich, and leaned on his counter, chewing. He couldn't stop thinking about his dead lover. He missed her more than anything in the world. Percy didn't even think that a single person could possibly contain this much hurt. He knew that his friends were there, and that they felt his pain too. But they didn't feel the pain as strongly as he did, Percy, the one closest to Annabeth. He would do anything to get Annabeth back.

Anything. Even making some kind of deal, or _Bargain_.

* * *

**So Percy is through with anger, and is on to the next stage, which is bargaining. I'm going to try and write a chapter a day, but don't hold me to that. Also, if you didn't see the message in Denial, Revenge is now the official prequel to Stages. So here's the link to that:**

** s/9214271/1/Revenge**

**Till next time my friends.**


	3. Bargaining

Percy spent most of his time now in the library, researching… terrible things. He was close to the edge, and what he was reading was the final push.

His current reading material was on summoning demons to make deals.

He was doing his work in the dark corner of a library. There were several stacks of books on summoning monsters and creatures from different faiths and religions. He figured that at least one of these had some merit. So far, he had gone through summoning jinn, demons, ghosts, and many other grotesque looking beings. He was making notes on a piece of paper, how to summon the creature, appease them, and began negotiating. He looked at his watch, and gasped in surprise. He'd been here for several hours. It was almost 4:00pm. He had arrived early, skipping breakfast so he could get more study time in. He had been at the library for most of the week. This was his last trip here. He felt like he had gotten all the information he needed in order to try and summon several creatures. He walked out of the library, and to his car. He drove to a nearby Walmart; he needed to pick up a few things in order to do the rituals. He walked up and down the aisles. Incense, wax candles, and chalk for drawing circles. He got these objects, paid, and drove home. He went into his living room, and cleared a bunch of space in the middle. He got his recently purchased chalk, and began drawing a summoning circle in the middle of his floor. He lit the candles and incense. He withdrew from his pocket, a very small book that seemed to give off an aura of menace and age. It was leather-bound and had ancient lettering on the cover and on the pages. It seemed to be a mix of Greek and Latin. He opened it, and flipped through the pages, looking for the right chapter. It was titled in Greek.

Κλήτευση

'Summoning.'

He began to read from the book. "Έχω καλέσει τα Θάνατο του Θεού για να κάνει προσφορά μου, και εμφανίζονται μπροστά μου στο πεντάγραμμο!"

'I summon the god Thanatos to do my bidding, and appear before me in the pentagram!'

All at once, an almighty burst of fire erupted from the center of the circle, charring the wooden floors of Percy's living room. A man clad in black robes stood in the center. He looked around mildly, and his gaze settled on Percy.

"Mortal, why have you summoned me here?" The god said. Percy looked at him nervously.

"I want Annabeth back." He stated. Thanatos looked at him with a bored face.

"Death doesn't give do-overs. Sorry." He said in a monotone. Percy snapped.

"She wasn't supposed to die! She just killed herself out of nowhere, and none of us have any fucking idea why! I. Want. Her. Back!" He yelled. "And you don't even seem to give a shit!"

Thanatos looked at him crossly. "You are not the first impudent whelp to want someone back. Do not speak to me like that again, or I shall vaporize you where you stand. As it stands, I _could_ do it too. I am just a figment of your imagination after all, and imagination has no limits." Percy looked confused.

"Imagination?" He asked. Thanatos sighed.

"Of course. You _do_ know that you fell asleep in the library, right? All that old mythology on summoning creatures can be so boring. Well, I bid you good day." And with his closing statement, he vanished in another flame. The flame spread out and engulfed everything Percy could see. It got closer and closer to him…

* * *

Percy woke with a yell, hands flailing, scattering his books everywhere. The librarian looked over, and gave him a cross "shh!", and went back to stamping books. Percy looked around. He was still in library, just him, an annoying librarian, and a pile of dust, ancient tomes. His head sank into his hands, as silent tears fell off his face. He couldn't take this anymore. He just couldn't take it.

* * *

**Hey, it's been awhile. I'm not dead :P**

**I actually wrote this in German class right now, while I was supposed to be working. But every German teacher I've had is insane, or doesn't care about us, so I'm just working on this. It's been a shit day, so I write when I feel shitty.**

**Anyways, enough about me XD you came to read my stories. Kinda short, sorry. You can only write so much about something sometimes.**

**So I shall get to work on the next one! Until then guys!**

**P.S- I used Google Translate for the Greek, since I'm evidently not fluent.**


	4. Depression

_"Your voice has chased away, all the sanity in me." Evanescence, My Immortal_

* * *

Percy left the library, and headed home. He was sick of this. How could Annabeth do this to him? He thought she loved him. He got in his car, and took the long route home. He plugged his iPod into his car, and selected his depressing playlist. He decided to start with Bullet, a Hollywood Undead song. It most represented his mood right now.

_My legs are dangling off the edge, the bottom of the bottle is my only friend, I think I'll slit my wrist again, and I'm gone, gone, gone, gonSe!_

More tears streamed down Percy's face. He didn't bother wiping them away. He knew more would come. He didn't think he'd ever get over this.

_My legs are dangling off the edge, a stomach full of pills didn't work again, I put a bullet in my head, and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone!_

The idea seemed appealing to him. Suicide. He could go see his Annabeth again. He could hold her and kiss her, and she'd never be taken from him again. It would be so simple. All it would take is a little turn of the steering wheel…

No, no, he couldn't do that. Even if he did see Annabeth, she would never forgive him for that. Suicide was out of the question. Percy pushed the thought into the dark recesses of his mind. Then what could he do? What could help him cope with this impossible burden? Nothing came to mind…

He arrived home. He didn't bother turning the lights on. There was only darkness anyways. He didn't bother going to his kitchen. He couldn't bring himself to eat. Percy walked into his bedroom and sat on his bed in the cold, unforgiving darkness. If he closed his eyes, and thought hard enough, he could almost feel Annabeth behind him, wrapping her hands around his stomach, and resting her head on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and reality finally asserted itself. Percy broke down, and sobbed into his pillow. It was a terrible, awful sound. A scratchy scream tore itself from his throat as he continued crying.

_Gone, gone gone… she's gone… I'll never see her again, I'll never hold her, and kiss her, and I was too late to comfort her… oh God, why…_

He sobbed himself to sleep.

* * *

_ Percy was walking down the sidewalk. The winter air pressed down on him. A little further ahead of him was a girl, with beautiful blond locks. Percy saw her, and ran after her._

_"Annabeth? Annabeth!" He touched the girl's shoulder, and she whirled around. An unfamiliar face presented itself._

_"Who're you? My name isn't Annabeth!" The girl exclaimed. Percy's face fell._

_The girl disappeared, just winked out of existence. Percy felt a tap on his back. He turned and saw his one true love crying._

_"Why… why didn't you help me Percy?!" Annabeth yelled. "Why, why, WHY-"_

* * *

Percy woke, but he no longer woke with a jump. He had been having those kinds of dreams ever since he had gotten home from the library a fortnight ago. He sat up. He walked past the bathroom and the kitchen. He no longer had the desire to take care of himself, and his appearance confirmed it. His once beautiful black hair now almost touched his shoulders. He had a very fine layer of dirt over his skin, and his once bright and eager green eyes had dulled to a numb gray.

Percy walked to his living room. He did this every morning nowadays. He sat there, and tried to think of what he lived for now.

Nothing came to mind.

His left arm briefly stung, and he glanced at it. A long jagged cut ran from his wrist to nearly his elbow. It wasn't a suicide attempt, he had sworn not to, but it was a way to cope. He had only done it once, the morning after his escapade at the library. He absentmindedly scratched at it, reopening the wound slightly. Blood dripped. He watched it travel down his arm, and drip onto the carpet, staining it red. He made no move to clean it. He no longer cared about anything. There was no point in caring about anything if Annabeth was dead.

There was a knock at the door. Percy made no move to get out of his chair, and instead started blankly at his turned-off TV. He heard the door open.

"Percy…?" Reyna's voice sounded through the silent house. "Hey, are you here?" She called out softly.

Her footsteps got closer to his position in the living room. Percy looked toward the hallway as she became visible. She looked around for a fraction of a second before her eyes landed on him. Her hands went up to her mouth in an expression of shock.

"Percy… oh my God…" She said. Percy smiled bitterly.

"I know how I look." His voice was cracked, having not spoken for two weeks. "Like Hell. I look like what I'm living in…" He chuckled sadly.

"Percy… oh Jesus… we're all so worried about you! That's why I came by. I volunteered to… check up on you." She said.

"Well, you did your job, now leave me…" Percy said weakly.

"No, no, no. You're going to shower, and get some food in you." She said.

"Reyna, no…"

"And once you're presentable, I'm calling everyone over. You don't have any say in the matter." She said with finality.

Percy considered his options. He could try to run, but his malnourishment would work against him there, and Reyna was pretty fast herself. She'd catch him and force him to eat and shower. Which left only one option.

"I'll take a damn shower…" He muttered under his breath. Reyna sighed.

"Smart choice…" She said. Percy got up. Reyna watched him walk by and noticed his arm. "Did you do that to yourself?" She asked worriedly. Percy stopped walking, looked over his shoulder, and gave her a look of sadness. He walked into the bathroom, and turned on the water.

Reyna sighed again, picked up, and began to make calls.

* * *

**Another chapter up! You must not be used to be getting this much stuff from me :P**

**No promises on when the last chapter, Acceptance, will be up, but I might work on it while I'm away for the weekend.**

**As a little side note, I recently got Snapchat and Kik. Feel free to contact me if you wanna talk sometime :) Info is here, and on my profile.**

**Kik- TehNicksterBoi**

**Snapchat- tehnicksterboi**

**Till then!**


	5. Acceptance

He opened his eyes to the always dark and cold room. He awoke in the same manner, coming out of his sleep right before the hands throttled him. And it had been this way ever since The End. Sleep, nearly die, awaken, and keep realizing what's been lost. And every time he woke, he would look at the tingling scars on his arm. He had never let them heal. They served as a reminder, to never have feelings of love or attraction to anybody again. But he had been fucked from the start.

In the beginning, he had never wanted a relationship. Why, you may ask. A young child being raised in a house with fighting parents never helped. His birth parents had eventually divorced and remarried. But then, the boy's mother and stepfather began to fight. He would always hide under the stairs, listening to them yell, and curse each other. He didn't know why they stayed together. Perhaps divorces were a long process. Perhaps they both loved the boy. The boy didn't love his stepfather. He loathed him. He was always hurting his mother with spiteful words. These events began to lay the foundation for the boy's hatred of "love".

The boy read a lot. He read all kinds of novels. Ones about magic, dragons, knights… everything interested him. But for some inexplicable reason, he was drawn to romance novels. Of all the things, this is what he loved to read. He would read about men going to exhausting lengths to get, or save their loved one from danger, or others. It intrigued the boy. _Would a man actually do this for his lover? Would he go so far as to find her if she was on the other side of the world? Would he fight off attackers and defend her life? Would he die for her? Good always seems to prevail, and love wins over hate._ But then the boy would put the book down. And he would remember that it was only a story. Since when has storybook romance ever been realistic? He would often ask himself that question. Then he came to the answer. It never was real.

* * *

The boy grew up. He went to school, he biked around his neighborhood, and generally tried to avoid people. But in a school, that was usually difficult to do. He hated school. All the moronic children jammed into one building. He had to watch, and endure bullies, asshole children, the looks of the other kids as he passed by… childhood was definitely the time when humans were cruelest. He had in total, maybe two friends that he could talk to. But they couldn't understand him. Nobody could.

Then she came.

* * *

She was amazing. She was beautiful, funny, caring, and smart. What more could a guy ask for? The boy was questioning his earlier answer about storybook romance. He felt as if he _would_ do anything for this girl. The longer he stayed around her, the more he began to come out of his shell. She was an amazing friend. But she was only that. A friend. He struggled to remind himself of that, of his promise not to love. One day, he could bear it no longer. He confessed to the girl he had feelings for her. The girl had no idea. She knew of his "no love" promise, and was therefore shocked by his confession. After a little while, they were together and the boy was never happier. Then out of the blue, The End started. He was slammed by wave after wave of sadness and pain. The three months began. He never let the cuts on his arm heal. They were the reminder.

* * *

He lay awake, listening to the whirring of his fan, and the godly sound of Tim McIlrath's singing came from his iPod speakers. All the lights were out, and the curtains were drawn. It was about one in the morning. He couldn't sleep. He was too afraid of what would visit him in his dreams. _Does she lose sleep over this…?_ He thought to himself. _No… probably not…_

* * *

He sat up in the same room. Same darkness. Same cold. Same suffocating silence. He slumped back down on his back. His neck touched something wet. Percy looked at his pillow.

It was soaked in tears.


End file.
